A former member of the house of Representatives, Chief Oladipupo Adebutu has emerged as the Governorship candidate of the Peoples' Democratic Party, PDP in Ogun State.
The primary election which took place on Wednesday, at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, OOPL in Abeokuta saw Adebutu defeating the trio of Otunba Segun Sowunmi, Otunba Jimi Lawal Adebisi and Abodunrin Adeyemi.
Out of the 716 votes casted Adebutu scored a total votes of 715, while the other aspirants had no vote with one vote voided.
The PDP electoral panel, headed by Prof Akase Sorkaa while announcing the result at the late hours of the day said, "of this result Honourable Adebutu Oladipupo is hereby declared the winner" while the shouts of "say LADO" rented the air.
Meanwhile, there was complete pandemonium at the beginning of the election following the sporadic gunshots that rented the air.
Journalists, party delegates and supporters who had stormed the venue of the exercise scampered for safety as loyalists of two governorship aspirants, Oladipupo Adebutu and Jimi Lawal clashed over the delegate list to be adopted for the exercise.
The exercise which started around 5:pm was disrupted following a shouting match and clash over the delegate list.
Nigerian Newstrack gathered that there was tension over the agitation for the use of delegate list from the national.
Trouble started shortly after the chairman of the PDP electoral panel, Prof Akase Sorkaa announced the mode of conduct of the exercise.
Our correspondent who was at the venue observed that some loyalists of Lawal, an ex-banker raised an objection, rejecting a delegate list brought from the national secretariat of the party in Abuja.
This led to a shouting match between supporters of Lawal and Adebutu who also engaged one another pushing and shoving.
One of the media aides of Lawal, Austin Oniyokor, who brought some documents claiming to have been certified by the INEC, insisted that the exercise must not take place unless the said document is adopted.
The drama which lasted for over 30 minutes saw security operatives helpless while INEC officials temporarily relocated from the hall.
“This exercise cannot be conducted with a fake list. These are INEC-generated documents. These are your certified documents,” Oniyokor shouted while addressing INEC officials.
While still waiting for the party officials to find solutions to the impasse, sound of gunshots from outside the hall caused journalists and other delegates to scamper for safety.
Meanwhile, earlier in a parallel election another governorship aspirant, Segun Showunmi, was declared as the party governorship candidate by a group.
The group which held a primary at the NUJ Secretariat, Oke-Ilewo, Abeokuta, announced Showunmi as the PDP governorship candidate in the state.
Acclaimed Chairman of the electoral committee at the election, Abayomi Daniel, announced Showunmi as the winner after polling 554 votes to defeat his closest rival, Lawal who scored 30 votes, while Adebutu polled 15 votes.
According to Daniel, a total number of 778 delegates were accredited, 702 votes were cast while three votes were voided.
Sowunmi in his acceptance speech called on other aspirants to work together with him to secure victory for the party in the 2023 general elections.
He said, “I humbly accept the nomination as candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for Ogun State. I thank all the delegates, I thank all relevant authorities and the security for their efforts.
